Morung Express News
Kohima | April 20
The Nagaland State Power Department today launched the Saubhagya: Pradhan Mantri Shaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana scheme in the state with the aim to electrify 91332 households in Nagaland by 2019.
The scheme was launched at the Directorate of Power Department, Kohima by Tovihoto Ayemi, MLA and Advisor to Power.
The scheme will target the electrification of around 3.7 crore households in India with the objective to achieve Universal Household Electrification, creation of last mile connectivity to all households in rural and urban areas, and provision of electricity connections to all willing un-electrified households in rural and urban areas.
The scheme will provide free electricity connection to all remaining economically poor un-electrified households in urban areas with no upfront fees. The connection will be given through camps organised on a regular basis and monitoring on dedicated web-portal, as well as mobile app for documentation and release of connections. So far, 42.24 lakh households have been electrified, with Rs 1540 crore released to 14 states and 34,761 camps organised across India.
KD Vizo, Commissioner & Secretary, Power stated that the whole project will be monitored by the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC).
“In the scheme, every State is supposed to complete household electrification by March 31, 2019 and this is no doubt a big task for the department of power. As per the available record there are 2,81811 rural households in the State and out of that 193502 are already electrified. Since 21,543 are already being covered under another scheme called DDUGJY, only 66,766 rural households are proposed to be covered under Saubhagya program,” Vizo informed.
He further stated that there are 1,43,007 urban households in the State, out of which 118511 urban households are already electrified. This leaves 24,566 urban households proposed to be covered under the program. With both the urban and rural household, about 91332 households in Nagaland will be electrified by 2019.
The Saubhagya scheme also comes under the recently launched ‘Gram Swaraj Abhiyan’ from April 14 to May 5. “While carrying out this program (Gram Swaraj Abhiyan), the Department of Power shall be covering 738 villages and thus the poor people in the rural areas shall be greatly benefitted,” Vizo said. He added that electricity connection will be released only after due verification with essential documents. The facilities to be provided will be only single point wiring with provisions for LED bulb, mobile charging points and switch.
Tovihoto Ayemi meanwhile stated that the program is a good initiative especially for the remote areas which do not have access to electricity. While the starting connection will be free, Ayemi also reminded that households will have to bear the cost of electricity.
In the coming months, the department is expected to set up camps where willing households can receive connection on the spot.
